Chapter 2

It was all because I'd casually mentioned once that I wanted to try her homemade meat pies.

Sabrina fed them to me hot, tears streaming down her face the whole time. She said she didn't know where I was headed next, but she wanted me to always remember the taste of those pies—and the woman who'd made them for me with her own hands.

In that moment, I hesitated. Across every mission I'd ever taken, she was the first target who'd ever made me anything by hand. My heart melted right then. Back in my own world, I'd been an orphan too—no father, no mother, nothing waiting for me. After turning it over in my head, I decided to stay and build a real life with Sabrina.

Then everything changed the moment my twin brother, Aiden Hale—missing for years after being abducted as a kid—was found and brought home.

My parents broke down the moment they saw him again. Tears streaming, voices cracking—after all those years, their son was home. And after that, whatever Aiden said or did, they believed him and gave him whatever he wanted, no questions asked.

I'd assumed Sabrina would never be like them. But after the wedding, her attitude toward me started to shift, little by little.

I couldn't understand what it was about Aiden—my twin, who didn't look anything like me and carried himself with a rough, cocky swagger—that drew Sabrina in so completely. I don't know exactly when it started, but the two of them just kept growing closer.

Thankfully, not long after, Sabrina got pregnant and gave me a daughter, which eased some of the tension between us. I named her Noelle Hale, after the home I could never go back to.

I poured every ounce of love I had left into that little girl. When she was small, she treated me like the most important person in her world—the mountain that sheltered her, the thing she leaned on. But as she got older, she started falling for her Uncle Aiden and his sleeve of tattoos, just like her mother had, without even seeming to notice it happening.

I didn't know what Aiden had gone through during all those years he was missing, so my instinct was to keep my daughter away from him. But the harder I tried, the more Noelle pulled away from me. I told myself it was just a phase—kids get rebellious as they grow up.

Then came Noelle's twelfth birthday party.

I came home carrying her favorite cake, and through the window, I saw her introducing her family to her friends. She pointed at Aiden with a proud, beaming smile.

"That's my dad. Pretty cool, right? Don't you think he and my mom make a great couple?"

In that instant, I felt like I'd fallen through ice into freezing water. It made staying in this world feel like a cruel joke.

Which brings me back to right now—lying in the ICU, forgotten by everyone. I could feel my soul drifting free, looking down at my own body, barely clinging to life, motionless on the hospital bed.

I sighed. This body was never really mine to begin with. I shouldn't have let myself get so attached to a little warmth.

All I'd ever wanted was to find my brother and bring our family back together. I wanted a wife who loved me, a kid who looked up to me—the whole package. That was the dream.

But in the end, I'm the one who walked myself right off a cliff.

"Where's Uncle Aiden? Is he okay?"

I heard Noelle's voice, achingly familiar. I was practically dying, and the first thing on her mind was still her Uncle Aiden. Her words hit me like a blade straight through the chest.

"Sweetie... your Uncle Aiden is fine. It's your dad who's seriously injured."

A young nurse leading her by the hand gently corrected her.